Top 10 Countries to Give Birth

Part 1: Sweden

In addition to friendly people, wonderful pastries, and all the snow you could ask for, Sweden also boasts one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. While this could be due to many things, one of the main reasons is their commitment to research into reproductive health and their ability to integrate evidence based interventions into practice.

Along with this, they have a commitment to maintaining bodily autonomy for their patients and centering their care around empowering women.Their C-section and other rates of extreme interventions are drastically lower than other countries with similar income levels. Their patients feel listened to and safe when giving birth in hospital settings. Interventions like perineal support during delivery, and delayed cord clamping even during stabilization or resuscitation of the newborn is evidence of Sweden taking an extra step to provide the most care possible to their patients.

After the child is born, their parents are given ample time to get to know the new addition to their family. Parental leave lasts 480 days per child and is required to be shared between parents. Specific months are reserved for each parent to support early bonding for both parents, and gender equality in childcare. Men and women are encouraged to stay at home to take care of their child, and go back to work when they're ready.

While things aren't perfect (they struggle to provide midwifery care for their rural patients, and their positive statistics don't always apply for foreign born mothers), they are continuing to improve their practices so every woman has a positive birth experience.